Totus testing

After spending more time at the national gallery yesterday (after meetings on nearby Capitol Hill) and its wonderful art, Totus tapped me on the shoulder with, if not ideas, urgently wishing collaborate with colors and forms to help me learn a few lessons.

One painting became two and 10 more. That’s what my mind said. Idea after idea to learn from.

First:

Actually I began with this asymmetrical background of three wiped yellow forms, with black vertical markings dissolving from the left edge to a nearly non existent echo by the third. Finally, a step form in the lower right. I agonized over the impulse to stop here.

But as satisfying as it would have been, my copilot was having none of it. There were chemical and fluid dynamics that I needed to feel and see for myself.

So I added phthalo blue to the ivory black used here to see how pressure applied by brush and even my finger would create a color shift. Revealing the teal that hides in phthalo crowded out my black marks and this scale means that what worked before was drowned by the totus. My finger pulled through the motif adding structure and drawing out the green even over white background.

Busy, saying a lot but nothing can be heard. Not a “totus waste” but… see what I did there? Maybe that’s the title.

If I overthought that one, I gave barely a thought to this next one. I used the recently created blue to create the background, which I blended by wiping upwards across the field.

After it dried 70% I used an orange to create a contrasting totus.

With a streak added on lower portion to imply a ground to keep the juicy motif from floating away. This probably succeeds because I let my unconscious brain carve a place for a gaze to let your mind wander.

this day has taught me volumes… and wanting more